No, We're Not the XMen
by Skellig8
Summary: Our favorite agents are superpowered crime fighters and they have a new case. But something's up with Tony... Gibbs/DiNozzo pairing.


"Time to pay rent," Gibbs said as he strode into the room, dropping files onto Tony's desk as he passed.

"What've we got?" Tony asked, opening the files and handing them out to Tim and Ziva who gathered at his desk.

"Dead marine," Gibbs responded shortly. "Playing with fire."

"Pyro?" Tim asked.

"Yep," was the terse reply. "McGee, I want you on background checks, see what you can dig up. Ziva, I want you with Ducky, see what he has on the victim so far. DiNozzo, you're with me."

Tony followed Gibbs into the break room and as soon as he had closed the door most of the way Tony began, "Bad day?"

Gibbs nodded pinching the bridge of his nose with one hand, leaning against the counter.

"Want me to-?" Tony broke off reaching a hand towards Gibbs.

"If you don't mind."

"With you? Never," Tony grinned leaning in towards Gibbs, first placing a finger against the other man's temple then putting his hand alongside Gibbs' face. Gibbs sighed in relief thankful for Tony's power. Tony leaned in further body leaning against Gibbs' own, foreheads touching. DiNozzo was a Null, quite rare in their type of community and one of the most powerful. When he had shook the man's hand in Baltimore he was surprised at the feeling. That feeling of serenity, of -silence-, the piece of mind he never got as a telepath. His powers meant nothing in front of this individual, and could only be beneficial to their team that he was in the process of building. The silence, the blessed silence, existing only now in the physical. They had practiced this many times at Tony's insistence after a psychic attack in which DiNozzo had saved his life. Then came Tony's lips against his own, chaste in terms of what they usually participated in. Gibbs indulged in a few of the kisses, grounding himself back to his body.

"DiNozzo, not at work," he chastened gently. "We'd never get anything done, remember?"

A huff of laughter between their slightly parted lips and Gibbs opened his eyes to regard Tony's green ones. "All right, Boss."

"Later," he promised.

"You okay now?" Tony asked moving away slightly, but keeping his hand on Gibbs' face.

"Yeah, 'bout as good as I will for awhile," Gibbs returned.

"Ready?"

Gibbs nodded and Tony slowly took his hand away from Gibbs' face, giving him a chance to rebuild his shields. Tony took his hand away and Gibbs braced himself for the press of so many minds against his. All except for the man in front of him. He gave a soft smile, "Thanks."

"No problem, Boss."

It was always intriguing with Tony, he could never know what the man was thinking or feeling, it always had that mystery appeal, he had to work at their relationship like the Norms, the people without powers.

"Time to get back," and Gibbs wasn't looking forward to it. Though he had been in the Marines, he'd been recruited by a division of the government that was unnamed, its sponsor's cover was the Navy, more specifically, NCIS. The Navy paid for them and sometimes they had to "pay rent" and work cases for them. Most of them with a touch of the super powered and to do things for them that regular people couldn't.

~*~*~

Gibbs and his team were soon on their way to the scene of the crime, an alley by a frequented Navy bar. Stepping out of the car quickly and making his way to the colored tape. Tony was the first to recover getting out of the car to Gibbs' fast driving and hastening his way to be on his boss' six. Tim and Ziva took a moment, since they had ridden in the back and had been tossed into each other for most of the ride. The alley had scorch marks on the side, blackening the brickwork.

Fieldwork was always a challenge for Tony, he couldn't touch much of the evidence except that on the scene. They had found that out the hard way when Abby tried to process their evidence. Tony's nullifying power wiped traces of imprints, or that's what Abby liked to call it. She was the epitome of a perfect forensic scientist. She had the power to sense imprints on objects, see who they belonged to as well as having the hard science to back it up in court. It made finding convictions easier, and their cases iron-clad.

The marine had been burned to death in a twisted way, leaving behind the signature of a pyro, which is why they had to move the body so quickly. It would be hard to support something that looked like spontaneous human combustion. Tony looked at the scene as he was relegated to his usual duties, most of the time interviewing witnesses. He pulled out his notebook and pen and made his way to the bartender and the bar owner, who had found the man last night when they took out the trash in the evening after close. It was getting colder this time of year and they moved inside for the interview. No details caught his notice there, they just had the unfortunate luck of finding the body. No patrons had looked suspicious or had followed the marine out of the bar.

He was also glad for McGee's powers, being able to start the car to get it warm for them. McGoo was the universal remote and could affect anything that had working electronics, the ultimate computer hacker. When Tony was feeling particularly impish he would interrupt Tim's searches on the computer by placing his hand on the computer tower, trapping McGee in it. They were the crème de la crème of teams, Kate had made their trio a complete four with her wonderful power of shielding and let's face it, she had awesome defensive skills. With her death went something special, but it was something they had to accept in their line of work, especially with superpowers.

Ziva came to get him and he thanked the men for their time. Ziva, her powers were stealth and illusion, more powerful than the average assassin because her stealth included true invisibility. She was always frustrated with him because he could see her when she came into range, big surprise on her part when she tried sneaking up on him. Well, it wasn't sneaking up on him because she was so blatantly walking towards him, it's not a surprise attack if you see them coming. Or shouting surprise attack! either. Somehow he thought it was that inability to get one over on him that made her irritated with him. After coming from a family with similar powers, well, she should be appropriately challenged now. Their contests always had heat to them.

~*~*~

They made their way back to headquarters with frustration on their minds. They weren't any further on this case than before, they would have to wait until the evidence was processed before going any further. That meant Gibbs was going to be short with them all until Ducky and Abby worked their magic. Tony was quick to put his head to the task to avoid Gibbs' wrath for the moment, logging the bar owner's name in his database.

Gibbs headed down to Ducky's autopsy, glad that the body had already made its way here. Taking a gulp of coffee, he walked through the doors. "Ducky, what have you got?"

"Jethro! I was just about to give you a call," Ducky began pulling on a pair of gloves and walking over to the body. "I just got the results from his blood tests and he does have the mutant gene. And I was able to recover this from his clothing."

Picking up a blackened square with a pair of forceps he held it under the light for Gibbs' inspection. It was a patch that denoted the man on a special team for those with powers...

"Special teams, huh?"

"I believe so. Makes me wonder."

For all their superpowers, Ducky was the only one without. It made it hard sometimes for him to understand having them, but he was always an open ear to his team and himself. They had known each other the longest out of the organization and were still close friends. Ducky had been figuring out how to tell the difference between the Norms and he didn't want to sound too comic-book-y with the word 'mutants.' He had never begrudged Jethro of his gifts and though sometimes his thoughts were less than pretty about his friend, there was no mistake with the underlying affection. "I believe this might be something to discuss with our Miss Abigail. She might have better introspection in this case."

~*~

"Gibbs! I was just about to call you!"

"I know, Abs."

"You take the fun out of it," Abby pouted, but continued anyways. "Our dead marine was a pretty normal guy, except y'know, the powers thing. His was some telekinesis, low-scale rating of 4 on our lovely 'How much of a mutant are you?' scale. Which is kind of a dumb way to rate your powers, what you get is what you get and sometimes you just have the dynamic to-"

"Abby!" Gibbs cut in.

"Right," she focused again. "What I'm getting from the sample Ducky sent me was he was on special teams. He liked it there, but this guy that was after him, he knew him somehow...briefly." Her eyes squinted a bit and her eyes drifted to the sides as she was analyzing what she got from the patch earlier. "I hate to say it Gibbs, but I didn't get a lot from it. Maybe from something else. I still have to go over the items in his pockets and see if I can get a reading off those. But I thought that information might be useful."

"It's not much, but it's something," and he leaned in to kiss Abby on the cheek. "Thanks."

~*~

"McGee! I want a full line-up of all our marine's known associates," Gibbs barked when he made his way to their four cubicle plot. "He knew his killer."

"On it, Boss," returned McGee."Tony, what have you got?"

"I spoke with the bartender and the bar owner who were there that night. Our guy came in alone for a drink, they didn't see him remain long with any particular patron. 'Fraid it's a dead end there, I didn't sense anything out of the ordinary with them either."

"McGee," Gibbs turned back around.

"Boss, our marine is First Lieutenant Marcus Patterson, part of special teams. He had recently returned from a tour of Afghanistan and was awaiting orders to ship out again, most likely with the new shipment of soldiers that will be going out soon. According to his file, he has had nothing but commendations on his way up the officer's ranks," McGee stated, getting the information quickly up on the main big screen. "So far, all good things in his record, there's been no mention of reprimands in his training, even in his particular school graduating in the top fifteen percent for special teams."

"Good," Gibbs commented. "Let's find out who the attacker was, call Abby, see what she has on the personal effects. Ziva, what have you got?"

"I brought the evidence to the main locker and we found that the pyrokinetic that attacked Marcus was at least a grade six on the scale with the level of accuracy displayed on the scale. He might be on special teams as well. I have been looking through the main special teams database and marked any with fire making abilities and those that may have been in recent contact with him."

Gibbs shifted, frustrated with the case. There weren't any obvious signs of who this attacker was and they hadn't any big breaks except that of knowing the killer had known his victim. He glanced over to Tony who was rubbing and squeezing the back of his neck, the onset of a migraine he could tell.

"I'm going to go see Ducky for a minute, Boss," Tony said distractedly and made his way to the elevator.

Even though Ducky had no powers, he was a competent physician-scientist, working with the super powered for a number of years. Tony was a particular interest to him because he was a contradiction of all those that were super, an opposite.

"Anthony! What brings you down here?"

"Hey, Duck. I don't want to bother you if you're busy..."

"Nonsense! Come, let's have a chat. Tea?"

"If you don't mind," Tony nodded.

"Now my dear boy, what shall we talk about?"

"I've been having a lot of migraines lately, and they're getting worse. I've tried Excedrin, but it's just not working. I hate having anything to do with drugs, but I can't even look at the light when they come."

"Hmm," Ducky pondered. "I wonder about those migraines of yours. In fact, I had a man who reported with symptoms of migraines everyday, and then one day he-"

"Ducky, no horror stories right now, please," Tony looked at him with a smirk.

"Very well," Ducky said getting up and moving to his workbench, pulling out a few vials, a tourniquet, and a boar needle. "Let me take a few samples. I had wondered about your particular situation, Anthony. I know you submit to frequent tests to see how your powers work, and I know that you often are called in to restrain someone... or even take their powers away."

Tony looked away. "I just don't want it to get out of control. What if I hurt Gibbs? I couldn't live with myself if I managed to take away something that made him so...Gibbs."

~*~*~

"My dear boy, we'll get to the bottom of this," Ducky reassured the younger man. "I have a few theories I want to examine and I'll let you know."

He placed the blood back onto the counter for a moment and reached into the cabinet and pulled out a few packets of Advil. "Here, this might help more than the caffeinated Excedrin at any rate. I do hope these migraines pass soon. I'll take another look at your neural scans and let you know if I need new ones."

"Thanks, Ducky."

"No trouble at all, Anthony. Please don't hesitate to visit again, we'll figure this out."

"See ya, Ducky."

~*~

They were no further along in the case. Gibbs was planning a drive out to the base to interview the known associates. It was getting late, past the dinner hour and they would have to make their visits tomorrow. Gibbs dismissed them for the night, provided that they had everything ready to go for the next morning. They were going to leave early and be on the road by eight o'clock, bright and early.

Tony's phone rang.

"Hello? Agent DiNozzo."

"Ah! Anthony, I was hoping to catch you before you left."

"Hey Duck, you find anything?"

"Not that I took notice of. But has anything else been bothering you lately besides the migraines?"

"Nothing that really must have bothered me. Just the migraines were making it hard to function."

"Ah, I see."

"Anything so far?"

"Just theories, my dear boy. I want to see if anything manifests physically before I come to a conclusion. You rest up tonight, Anthony. A nutritious dinner and a full night of sleep should do you good."

"Thanks, Ducky. Good night."

"Good night." And Tony hung up his phone and sighed. This was the hardest part, the not knowing. Gibbs, and the organization insisted taking any health-related issues to Ducky, no matter how small. It was better for all because Ducky could provide excellent services as a physician and there were enough horror stories around for them to comply with those wishes. Agents that had ignored symptoms sometimes having a flare up of those powers sometimes ended up dead or in a coma. Matthew, a younger agent in the cubicle next over, had scars from a telekinetic who had ignored growing symptoms of sensitivity and had been caught in a telekinetic crossfire. He was lucky, he had only been hit by shards from a broken window. His partner was brain-dead somewhere in the bowels of a government facility. Probably the victim of experiments, or that's what the worst of Tony's imagination had come up with.

~*~

As to their agreement that nothing at work would change while they were together, Tony left to his own apartment leaving Gibbs at work. He knew Gibbs was deep in "case-mode" and would not emerge until they had a definite suspect in custody and their case ready to be put to bed. He felt bereft of the man's presence even though his own apprehension at being able to control his powers. If he took those away from Gibbs, they wouldn't be able to keep him on the active team. That was motivation enough for Tony to get this problem under control. He heated up some leftover lasagna he had made when Gibbs came over before their new case. He pulled a beer out of the fridge and sat down on the couch and flipped on the news. He did his best thinking here, reflecting over the day as the mass media spoon-fed a majority of the population.

He thought over the way the man was burned, totally incinerated and very little property damage. The killer had big guns, most likely was still in training in order to use them because of the marks they had found on the alley walls. Either that or Marcus had the good sense to duck and fight back. The man's face was entirely gone and he knew that most likely it was a crime of passion. You didn't destroy a man so completely like that unless you really hated him. You could have popped a bullet in his brain to the same effect. No, this went much deeper.

Shaking his head he took the last pulls of his now warm beer, making a face. He resolved not to think about it any more tonight, tomorrow was a new day. He sighed as he sank below the comforter and was glad to get some rest he only wished that Gibbs was here to share it with him.

He awoke just before dawn and looked around to see what would be the cause of his awakening. Nothing, no one was there and he shifted his weight a little to get more comfortable. He gasped in pain as he did so. The sheets against his skin felt like thousands of needle pricks, alone it was nothing but it was happening all over his body amplifying it to a greater pain. He gritted his teeth and waited out the sensation. As he became more aware the feeling died down but didn't fully go away. He looked at his clock, he had some time before his alarm went off and wanted to get more sleep before he had to get up for the day. He shifted and grimaced at the momentary discomfort and dull pain. He closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

His alarm clock rang and he was surprised since he hadn't fallen farther than a doze. He pulled back his blankets and the air of his room bit his skin. He hopped into the shower and screamed, well gave a manly yell and hopped out. If his sheets felt like needles, the shower felt like daggers.

What the hell was going on?

~*~

His skin was sensitive to touch and he couldn't bear anything more than his softest clothes, so he went to work in his favorite black cashmere turtleneck and softest dress pants. Underwear was a different story all together, jockey knit boxers were the way to go, he guessed. He felt prickly though he knew the materials he was wearing were soft and his favorites to wear, but today it was torture. Because of his powers Tony wasn't touched much at work or anyone who knew that he had the power to nullify their powers. He supposed it was because their powers offered them some sort of security and wanted to keep it with them at all times. He was often given a wide berth though he could reign in his range to his skin. Today he was keenly aware of other people and was grateful to not have people approach him. Any other time he would have craved it being a very tactile person, but today he might just scream if someone else touched him. He had tried touching himself, and that was bearable, a dull ache to what might happen later. He was early by Gibbs' standards, hoping that Ducky was in before the team had to move out at eight am.

He pushed the button down to the basement, for Autopsy and hopefully, answers.

~*~

Ducky wasn't there, and he had to leave in ten minutes. He gave a frustrated sigh to the empty room and made his way back upstairs. Gibbs' frowny face at him made him realize he was holding up the rest of the team. Tim and Ziva had arrived early to avoid the boss' wrath and clearly he had made the boss mad. Nothing changes at work, Gibbs was still in deep "case-mode" and would not emerge until later. Damn.

By crap luck, Ziva had already called shotgun and Tony was stuck next to Tim in the back seat who was doing probably doing something amazing on his palm pilot. The grin on his face just kept getting wider and wider. Tony considered getting snappy, but felt too much like shit to summon the effort. All the energy was draining from his body, like someone pouring it out quicker than he could fill it. It was an hour ride out to the base and Tony was dozing in the back every so often, biting down on the whimpers when Gibbs' took a corner too fast. He couldn't let his team know there was anything wrong, not until he could put a name to it.

Ziva briefed them on the way over, a Second Lieutenant James Kramar had received a promotion to first after Patterson's death. He was also their most likely suspect as a pyrokinetic. He had a few black marks on his record, but not enough for his promotions.

"What are you grinning about McGeek?" Tony asked, opening his eyes and getting out of the sedan.

"It's the strangest thing, I wasn't expecting to have a great signal out here, but there must have been a booster of some kind that-"

"Yeah, yeah, Probie," Tony waved a hand flippantly. "Work to do."

And they both moved quickly to catch up to Gibbs' and Ziva walking at a fast clip to the commander's office. Arrangements were made in short order with Gibbs' throwing his weight around as an NCIS agent and general hardass. They were going to meet the special teams that were based here and Gibbs' met the special teams captain outside after he had been paged. Part of Marcus Patterson's team were outside on the training grounds, the other half were near the mess, it was getting that time to officer's breakfast. Gibbs began simply with his no nonsense approach. "I want to speak to your team. The ones that reported to First Lieutenant Marcus Patterson."

"The main guys are by the mess, I'll show you."

And the team followed the military stride towards a large building where a group of Marines, all with the stars by their last names were smoking in their free time. If they weren't, they were around socializing with the other men who were. They approached them and one guy was just lighting up.

"Hey, Jimmy, give me a light, would ya?"

The man, 'Jimmy' leaned over with a hand with a lit finger.

"Thanks, man."

Gibbs tested the surface of the man's mind. Nothing yet, or nothing of interest, Gibbs left part of his mind open to the other man to listen to his thoughts.

"Lieutenant, these people need to speak with you and your team."

"Uh, hi?"

"You James Kramar?"

"Yeah."

"I'm Special Agent Gibbs of NCIS, I need to speak to you regarding your former lieutenant, Marcus Patterson."

~*~

Kramar eyed them shifting his weight, it was silent for a few seconds and then he bolted. Tony watched the interchange closely and seeing the man's muscles bunch in preparation he knew he was going to run. All the awful feelings he had this morning were gone with a surge of adrenaline. He was off at the same time Gibbs had barked, "DiNozzo!"

Kramar was a fast little shit, but thanks to Tony's adamant diligence to his running he was able to keep up. They wove between the buildings and Kramar kept glancing over his shoulder at Tony who was gaining quickly. He was looking for somewhere to make a stand and Tony reached inside himself to push out his range. The other man began throwing balls of fire over his shoulder and Tony wended and weaved to dodge out of the way. It slowed him a little and allowed Kramar to get a bit of a lead. His body thrummed with energy and he surged forward. He felt different and that thought slowed him down a little, normally he didn't feel anything as he pushed out his range, but ribbons of pins and needles tickled his chest and went down into his limbs.

They were in the military car park, full of Jeeps and there were tanks in the back. Kramar stopped in front of one of the Jeeps and Tony knew he was going to make a stand. Kramar summoned a ball of fire and it got bigger and bigger as Tony approached and had almost doubled in size. Not a half second later the fire was out of the pyro's control and Tony saw where it was going wrong, at ten feet away he started to backpedal to get out of the way. Tony's eyes were wide as he knew that something bad was going to happen. "Shi-"

And the world exploded.

~*~

Gibbs was taken aback at how quickly the man started to run, but he had caught the last vestiges of the man's thoughts, guilty as all hell. And then guilty ones always ran.

"DiNozzo!" he barked and Tony was already moving. He turned to the captain, "Get your men together!"

"Ziva! Follow him!" And she moved in the direction that the two men had gone.

The captain soon had the base on alert and not a few moments later they all heard the huge boom and saw the plume of smoke off in the distance. Gibbs' felt a lead weight drop directly into his stomach. 'Tony,' he thought. 'Please be okay.'

Gibbs and McGee began rounding up Kramar's buddies and had them all going into the mess when his phone rang.

"Gibbs!" it was Ziva. "There has been an explosion of some kind! Tony might have been in the middle of it."

Gibbs felt fear, but gathered his resolve. "Never assume Officer David, you make sure."

There was a sound of Ziva's panting breath as she moved around. "TONY!"

The world stood still for a moment.

~*~

Ziva rushed over to her fallen partner to where he lay tucked neatly by a tank. Kneeling down, she reached out to his body to see if he was still alive. "Tony?" she ventured. "Tony?" A bit stronger this time. She reached out to his shoulder and shook him a little. He took a quick indrawn breath at her hand and mumbled, "St'p, tha h'rts."

She had never been more grateful to his whining and smiled in victory, he was all right. She brought the still connected mobile to her face, "Gibbs? I found him, he is okay."

Gibbs had been silent on the other end since Ziva had shouted and he sighed in relief. "Stay with him, Ziva, we'll be there in a few minutes. Make sure your scene is secure." And then he hung up.

Ziva clicked her phone shut and turned back to her partner who had shifted to his back to see her better.

"Ow," Tony complained.

"Are you all right?"

"Just a little singed. Might have a few more bruises than I'd like though. But I'm better off than our friend Jimmy," he rubbed his throbbing shoulder. "Kiss it better?"

Ziva narrowed her eyes. "Are you trying to push my arm?"

"Pull your leg," Tony corrected.

"What difference does it make?"

Tony chuckled lowly and coughed. "Ugh."

"I suppose if you can still push my leg, you must be okay."

Tony's response was only to laugh. "Thanks, Ziva."

~*~

"No matter the mission, trouble always seems to find you, my dear boy," Ducky tutted over him. The older man had been called to the scene to collect the body, or well, whatever remained of the lieutenant's body. Tony was sitting shirtless on the bumper of the sedan while Ducky checked his injuries. "Just bruising, I believe. And you passed out because of the oxygen being burned up around you. Incredibly lucky, my boy."

Gibbs was hovering over Ducky's shoulder checking out his agent while Ducky fretted as if to reassure himself that Tony was alive.

"I'm afraid there's not much I can do, you know the drill. Ice the worst of them and hope for the best. I still want to see you later to discuss your questions."

"Sure."

And Ducky moved off to his own work. Tony turned a bright grin onto his boss and flexed his muscles for him. "Like what you see?"

It didn't change much of Gibbs' expression, but his eyes were definitely lighter with amusement. If Tony could still joke with ease, then things would be all right. "What happened out there?"

"The fire just got too big for him to handle. He couldn't control it. Good thing tanks are pretty fireproof," Tony mused as he pulled his shirt back on. He held up his jacket which was covered in dirt and mostly singed. "Damn, I liked this jacket."

"Tony..." Gibbs trailed off.

Tony looked up at him, expression going soft, to something private between them- a promise. "Yeah, I know, Boss. Later though."

Gibbs nodded and agreed, "Later."

~*~

The chance for later didn't happen the way Tony wanted, he wanted to go to Gibbs' house after work. Gibbs was tied up with evidence and report writing for awhile. He hadn't been much better, he'd spent the better part of the night discussing his predicament with Ducky. Rather than disturb Jethro, he decided to go home and get as much rest as he could before work in the morning where he would finish the final draft of his report and to get the case finished and things back to a moderate level of stress and anxiety. That was until he had nightmares and rather than trying to get back to sleep he got up and sat in front of the television which had a marathon of black and white monster movies on. They offered no comfort to him tonight. He knew one place where he could be safe.

He moved silently up the porch steps and the door, as always, was unlocked and he let himself in. He closed the door gently behind him and hoped that Gibbs had heard him come in, most likely he had and was on the receiving end of a telepathic inquiry, only Gibbs wouldn't be able to access anything. He toed off his shoes in the entryway and put his jacket over the back of the couch as he made his way to the stairs and up to the master bedroom. He paused in the doorway.

"Jethro?"

"Tony."

He shuffled nervously at the doorframe now unsure and feeling rather pathetic that he came over because he was -scared- of a silly nightmare.

"Well? Aren't you coming in?"

Gibbs no-nonsense attitude brought him back to himself and he began stripping off his clothing and clad in only his boxers he crawled in next to his lover. He was pulled in and tucked beneath Jethro's chin, held tightly. Being touched and Gibbs willingly giving up the presence of his powers to him.

"Want to tell me what this is about?" Gibbs' voice cuts into the silence.

Tony sighed and gripped Gibbs about the waist, suddenly feeling foolish, "It's stupid."

"Tony..."

"I had a nightmare. A bad one this time."

"What was it about?"

"Boss, I've been seeing Ducky..."

Gibbs stiffened beneath him. "And?"

"I'm just afraid I'm going to hurt someone, mostly you... And I'm afraid when they find out that they're going to take me away... Away from here, away from my home, and you."

"Is your range growing? Is that what it is?"

"There's a lot I haven't told you, Jethro," Tony said quietly, combing his fingers through his lover's chest hair. "I wanted to tell you."

"So tell me." Confession time. If he couldn't trust Jethro there was no one in the world he could.

"You know I'm one of the few that knows how to catch and subdue those with abilities, but I'm part of the system that takes them away when those have been judged to have them removed."

"So, you can do that... I never had concrete proof."

"Yes... Luckily, I don't have to do it often, just when one gets out of hand and they can be put into a normal prison. I don't go out on the weekends, that's usually what I'm doing. There aren't many of us who can do it and I'm the primary for the East Coast. They like to keep track of me. I don't know if you've ever felt it before, but they have a chip planted on me. Abby does too. And Ducky."

"I know about Ducky's, but where are the others?"

"This is need-to-know, but if it ever comes down to it. Ducky's is in my forearm here," Tony sat up a little, grabbing Gibbs' hand and pressing it firmly just under his wrist. "Feel it?"

"Yeah."

"Abby's is here, on my left shoulder blade, it's a small bump there."

And Gibbs' hand moved to trace it. "And the other one?"

"Here," and Tony took Gibbs' hand again and pushed a finger into the crease behind his left ear. "That one I thought you already noticed."

"Yeah, I found that one."

"I'm a pretty hot commodity apparently," and Tony tucked himself back under the other man's chin and throwing a leg over his hip.

And there was silence for a bit.

"So why have you been seeing Ducky?"

"My powers are growing... He guessed that a lot has to do with how much I use them, and what my power actually does. I don't just nullify, I absorb the energy that's being given off in someone's brain. Recently, on the Patterson case, that's what happened. He wasn't more powerful than me..."

~*~

"...So?"

"I'm the one who boosted his powers. Apparently I can take the energy and double it. Ducky described it to me like sound waves. If you put two pitches that are the same together, they double their volume. They resonate."

Gibbs nodded, knowing Tony would feel the movement.

"Apparently, I can match other people's frequencies and amplify or boost their powers somehow. It comes down to an interchange of energy, and I have a lot, you know," Tony chuckled.

"Since you eat all the time, I get it."

"Ducky says I'm going to need to eat more if I plan on using it. It's going to eat up my reserves pretty quick until I get a handle on it. Swimmer's diet, ten thousand calories for big days...and I get to eat at my desk, Ducky's orders," Tony gloated.

Gibbs cuffed Tony lightly on the back of the head before smoothing the hair on the back of Tony's head back down, smiling a little. "Only if you keep it clean."

"Sure, Boss."

And they were silent for awhile again.

"You're taking this better than I thought."

"I'm still thinking, Tony. I'll still have to think about it."

"Okay," Tony sighed resignedly.

"It's nothing bad," Gibbs reassured him, hearing the desolation in Tony's tone. "We're just going to have to be a little more careful, that's all."

"You're telling me," Tony rolled his eyes. "I don't know what it is with you, but, I think I'm okay here."

"What?"

"I was... reluctant to come over here, in case I couldn't control myself, but I think...," Tony started and then sighed dramatically. "It sounds corny."

"Sometimes it can't be helped. Tell me."

"I think it's because, even in my subconscious, I trust you."

Gibbs was silent, and a small smile graced his face, he squeezed Tony tightly for a moment. "And there's no one I'd rather have on my six."

It was a delicious feeling of warmth in Tony's stomach.

"Get some sleep," Jethro gruffed. "Tomorrow will be a better day."

"Good night," Tony yawned feeling warm and tilted his head and kissed Gibbs on the neck.

"'Night, Tony," and Gibbs squeezed him a little tighter before relaxing, falling back into sleep.


End file.
